After fielding one of the Southeastern Conference’s top statistical units last season, LSU’s special teams opens the season with many questions to answer. One question the coaching staff said it would like answered is who will replace Skyler Green, the Tigers’ leading punt and kick returner for the past three seasons. LSU coach Les Miles said the early leaders to step in and fill the role are senior defensive back Daniel Francis, junior wide receiver Early Doucet, and freshman wide receiver Trindon Holliday. While none of the three possess the experience Green had, Doucet said he is looking forward to getting a chance to be a major factor in the return game. True freshman Jai Eugene said he also expects to play a role in the return game. Eugene was working with the special teams unit in the summer before he suffered a broken left thumb, which prohibits him from catching the football. “For camp, before my cast, I was catching punts and kickoffs, but once I get my cast off, I think I’ll be doing the same thing,” Eugene said. The health of placekicker and punter Chris Jackson is also a question for the Tigers. Jackson suffered an elbow injury which forced him to undergo Tommy John surgery last winter. While the injury hampered him in the spring, Jackson said he is healthy now. “During the spring, I couldn’t receive any kind of snap, so I couldn’t punt,” Jackson said. “I’m fine now. I can throw and do my drops like I would normally do.” Jackson had his best statistical season as a Tiger last season. Jackson led the SEC with 44 percent of his punts being downed inside the 20-yard line.
The Tigers also return sophomore placekicker Colt David. Both struggled with consistency throughout last season, hitting only eight of their first 17 field goal attempts. But the duo progressed as the season went on, connecting on six of their last seven attempts, including three kicks of more than 45 yards. Sophomore P.J. Zimmerman and junior Jacob O’Hair are the Tigers’ long snappers this season. The pair has flown under the radar this summer, which they said is not necessarily bad news for a long snapper. “Nobody really knows who we are unless we mess up, so we try to stay low key in that way,” Zimmerman said. “We just want to get our job done out there.” One area the LSU coaching staff said it was impressed with was kickoff coverage unit. Last season, the Tigers ranked at the top of the conference in both kickoff and punt net averages. The coaching staff believes this success can be traced to the large number of offensive and defensive starters who play roles on the coverage units. Some programs have rules against allowing offensive and defensive starters to play on coverage units, but Miles said he expects to have no restrictions as to who plays on special teams. “We have always looked at special teams as the opportunity for some of our best players to play,” he said. One of the names Miles said he is counting on is senior running back Justin Vincent. Vincent said he has always appreciated his role on special teams, even when battling inconsistency in the backfield the past two seasons. While many questions remain for LSU’s special teams coming into this season, Miles said the unit will be in good shape for years to come. “The special teams speed that we have added with the freshman class is really noticeable,” Miles said. “You will see our return team and coverage teams show great speed. That will really be reflected to the addition of those teams with some of our freshmen who have come in and shown that ability.”
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